The present invention relates to mobile electronic communication devices, and more particularly, the present invention relates to message indicators for use in mobile electronic communication devices.
Mobile electronic communication devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, and wireless PDAs (personal digital assistants) are in wide use. Many such mobile electronic communication devices offer core functions such as a contact list, call log, voice mail and so forth, while many high-end models offer advanced functions such as Internet access and messaging services. Currently, most mobile electronic communication devices use a sound or a text message to notify the user that the mobile electronic communication device has received a message. However, these notifications typically do not provide a quick and easy method to determine the senders"" identities, nor do they provide an indication of how much time has passed since the mobile electronic communication device received the messages. For example, in some of these existing mobile electronic communication devices, the user must navigate through one or more menus displayed by the mobile electronic communication device to access messages to determine a sender""s identity and the time the message was received.
According to aspects of the present invention, a mobile electronic communication device having a message status indication system is provided. In one aspect, the mobile electronic communication device includes a processor unit, a transceiver, a keypad and a light unit. The light unit is used in performing light functions to provide an indication of the sender of a message received by the mobile electronic communication device.
In another aspect of the present invention, the mobile electronic communication device includes a contact list. The light functions include providing a notification that the mobile electronic communication device has received a message sent by a contact listed in the contact list.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the light functions include providing an indication of the relative age of received messages. In one embodiment, the mobile electronic communication device categorizes a received message into one of several predefined age categories, with a particular light function associated with each age category. For example, the age categories may include xe2x80x9cnewxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cintermediatexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9coldxe2x80x9d age categories. Continuing this example, these age categories are respectively associated with green, yellow and red lights, which are provided via the aforementioned light unit.
In a further aspect of the present invention, each key of the keypad is associated with a contact in the contact list. This aspect allows the mobile electronic communication device to indicate whether the mobile electronic communication device has received a message from a contact in the contact list by performing a light function via the key corresponding to the contact. For example, a message from the first contact or entry listed in the contact list can be indicated by illuminating the xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d key of the keypad (i.e., the key for entering the numeral xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d). In a further refinement of this aspect, a key can be programmed to automatically initiate a message operation addressed to the contact associated with the key.
In still another aspect of the present invention, the mobile electronic communication device may include a virtual keypad. For example, the virtual keypad may be implemented using a touch-screen LCD (liquid crystal display) or similar device. The touch-screen device can be used to display an illustration of a keypad, with each xe2x80x9ckeyxe2x80x9d operating like an icon for causes the character or symbol represented by the key to be inputted when the user activates the xe2x80x9ckey.xe2x80x9d A user can activate a xe2x80x9ckeyxe2x80x9d of the virtual keypad by contacting the portion of the touch-screen that is displaying the xe2x80x9ckey.xe2x80x9d In one embodiment, light functions can be performed by changing the appearance the virtual keys. For example, the light functions can include causing the color or shade of a xe2x80x9ckeyxe2x80x9d to change, a xe2x80x9ckeyxe2x80x9d to flash or blink, or causing a xe2x80x9ckeyxe2x80x9d to appear animated (e.g. to morph into a telephone illustration, rotate, appear to vibrate, etc.).